Robert Bellach One reviewer described this as like "Black Belt Jones vs. The Galaxy Invader," but that only scratches the surface. Exhumed Films calls it "a Blaxploitation/Horror/Kung-Fu absurdist masterpiece," which they very correctly note "could only exist in the exploitation heyday of the 1970s." This gets a bit closer. You're really getting 3 or 4 different movies in one here. Possibly my favorite plot of all-time: a soul-brother karate instructor travels to Hong Kong to learn and master his art, where his buddy and protégé steals an ancient amulet which (unbeknownst to him) has the power to control a demon. The demon follows them home to NYC where it hides in the subway and begins killing innocent (and not-so-innocent) bystanders. Oh, and by the way? The amulet-stealing buddy is also a drug dealer with an ongoing vendetta against the local Chinese crime gang. That's at least 2 movies right there. The film now shifts gears to another buddy of the karate instructor, who is a cop investigating the subway killings. This portion of the film now plays like a supernatural/creature hunter/police procedural/X-Files kinda thing. Again, this could be a movie in its own right. Everything comes to a head when the black kung-fu-ers and the Chinese gang realize it might not just be their street fights that's killing off their members, and that maybe the cops are on to something when they say something is lurking in the subway, waiting to mutilate its next victim. This all ends with what is the trippiest final fight sequence since Zardoz. I would not have believed such a movie could exist had I not seen it. I *have* seen it. You should too.

Andrew Leavold From a time when every white kid squinted their eyes, made dying cat howls and broke their legs jumping into the garage wall trying to be Bruce Lee comes a Z-grade blaxploitation zombie kung fu masterpiece that tries - oh, how it tries - to cover all bases, but all it really does is redefine the term "black action". Set mainly in a New York subway, it's so black you can hardly see any action. Can you dig it? Warhawk Tanzania plays kung fu master Luke Curtis, known by his pupils as See-Fu. On a meditation retreat to China, his star pupil Rodan (as in the giant Japanese pterodactyl) unwittingly picks up a silver medallion from the tomb of an ancient demon. Being the Seventies, ugly jewelry is considered the height of fashion, and they return to New York. The demon, meanwhile, bursts out of his tomb, jumps on the first ship to Harlem, possesses a brother-man, and wanders comically through the subway with huge white eyes painted onto his lids with liquid paper, looking for souls to feed on. The trail of murders sparks a gang war between local kung-fu-kicking triads the Red Dragons and ghetto gang the Black Spades (I kid you not). When Rodan has his necklace (and his head) torn off, Warhawk finally has a moment of clarity - see, the meditation finally pays off - and he bravely heads into the subway for a brother-to-brother showdown.Devil's Express was Warhawk's second and final film after Force Four (aka Black Force, 1975). Warhawk spends most of his screen time running down "honkies" and proving he's a Man of the People - saying no to drugs, giving street kids a hi-five, and eating Chinese takeout - with chopsticks - with his wooooman. What he can't do, and it's apparent from the start, is fight for shinola; as a bottom-shelf Jim Kelly, he's all attitude with no acting OR fighting chops to back it up. His punches land six inches from their intended destinations, all with the most inappropriate sound effects. As a distraction to how bad his fighting is, he steps on a Chinese kid's throat and bursts a blood vessel. Dramatic? No. Ludicrous? Of course. And that's the charm of a Warhawk Tanzania film. By the way - ever seen a Chinese kid with an afro? For a no-name cast, there's a surprise sacrilicious street-side ranting by New York eccentric Brother Theodore: "Moses is dead, Mohammed is dead, Buddha is dead... and I'm not feeling so hot myself." Bad acting, ham-fisted fighting and peppered with the most gut-wrenchingly exaggerated jive ("I know where you're coming from, See-Fu. I can DIG it!"), Devil's Express is a film that succeeds in making Huggy Bear look like Humphrey B. Bear. Can YOU dig it?

spetsnazrma This movie scared the hell out of me as a kid. I had to close my eyes through most of it and leave the theater even though I was used to horror films at a young age. This one scared the hell out of me. I have been looking for it ever since. I am 34 nowIt starts out with a group of monks wearing orange robes carrying a tomb, with a head monk dressed in a black robe. They are away from the public eye out in a rocky woods area, walking through some trails until they get to their final destination where they lower the tomb to the ground, The monks in orange, surround the tomb, and begin some sort of a ritual, each kneeling and going into a meditative state chanting where they break out into a sweat. As they are doing this the head monk in black takes a sword and chops of their heads one by one showing a horrible display of fountains of blood shooting out the headless bodies. The head monk drags the tomb into a cave under ground and surrounds the tomb with the headless bodies. I always remember the chopping off the heads scene where each one of these monks that are meditating are well aware that they are going to be next to die as the camera pans over to each one as the others get there heads chopped off. Some were very reluctant as it showed on there faces and the sweat from fear. Like I said this was filmed very well.It's five years later and you see a cop that's a martial arts expert training with his grand master in Hong Kong and then flying back to New York. Next the camera takes you over to the exact area where those murders occurred and into the cave. You see the decayed bodies still surrounding the tomb and all of a sudden a fist bust through the tomb from the inside. The purpose of the human sacrifices was to resurrect this demon form in the tomb and that's exactly what happened. You see the arm and the fist bust out of the tomb. It was grayish yellow with a rotten look. Next you see this abomination making its' way through the woods. You don't actually see it but just a camera view of something monstrous moving through the woods disturbing nature with it's presence as all the wild life birds deer's and small animals all scurrying out of it's path.The demon makes it's way into the city. The next thing that happens is that mysterious horribly gruesome murders take place in the subways of New York City. For instance a Chinese businessman is walking alone in the subway and all of a sudden he feels ill and starts to hemorrhage from his eyes nose mouth and ears arms. His eyes bug out into very large balls. This causes his him to scream and me to scream as well and wanted to leave the theater. I never seen so much blood and torture before. Eventually they find this man's dead body. It's taken to the hospital and to the morgue where law enforcement starts an investigation.Another person gets killed by electrocution in the subway. A worker gets his head ripped off and later at night a subway car loaded with people discover the headless body which causes a mentally disturbed bag lady to go histerical in the subway car. Next a rapist takes his victim into the darker dimly lit area in the subway on a night where there isn't any people to be seen. He knocks her down. He threatens her as she is crying and scared when all of a sudden the side walk starts to act as a conveyer belt with the rapist stuck to it, reeling him into the dark where there is no lights at all and he gets severed in half by a passing train. A very bloody and gory scene.There are two cops trying to find out who is behind these mysterious murders they are both martial arts experts with the Star Warkawk Tanzania being the much better one and more of a leader with a strong minded dominant personality. He takes charge and leads the investigation of the mysterious gruesome subway murders. His girl friend is the next victim who gets killed in the subway. Warhawk thought it way the gangs the whole time but comes to realize that even the gangs don't go into the subways at night anymore since the killings and that the gangs seemed to be the first to keep away from the subway. He figures that the Chinese gangs know what's going on and the only way he is going to get anything out of them is to earn their respect. He goes into China town and confronts one major gang and it's leader. They won't answer any questions. He decides to take them all on using martial arts against whatever they know which is also martial arts. This is a deal he suggested to the leader that if he wins against all that he gets some answers. So he fights them and beats them even against their knives and other weapons in a very brutal vicious lethal display of martial arts more like Seagal than Jackie Chan.A lot of breaking arms and stomping on this guys chest with one foot and at the same time pulling his arm breaking it. The guy throws up blood. This wasn't your cheesy blood squirting out of the mouth seen that we are all use to in those silly Chinese martial arts movies It was done real well with a feeling of real horror as he is puking violently and looks real scared as if to say "what did you do to me"? It was real graphic and dramatic, but short seen. Then he takes on the Chinese gang leader. This guy was fairly good and he ends up getting beaten bloody and throws in the towel. He feels now that he has no choice and decides to keep his end of the bargain by telling the cop of this Chinese occult witchcraft store that he could get info from. He goes there and see this old Chinese man running the place. It was the same monk that killed those other monks dressed in Black. For some reason I don't know why but he has a change of heart after the cop explains all that he went through and what has happened.He feels that this thing really got out of hand. I guess it wasn't supposed to venture off into the city's subways killing people there. This is not what the monks plans were. He agrees to help put a stop to it and help the cop. He gives the cop some crystal magnetic medallion and told him that if he wears it he could have a chance against this demon because as long as he wears this medallion the demons telekinetic powers won't work other wise he won't have any chance at all. The demon would have to contend on a much weaker physical level. The cop feel that in this case he could kill it with martial arts or a gun knife etc. He goes down there in the subway and the duel starts out with this demon playing tricks on him to catch him off guard. For example. His dead girl friend sees him in the subway and comes up to him telling him that she really isn't dead and that it was some sort of mistake or bad joke. Well, he really misses her and almost falls for it. She almost kills him before he shoots her.This all takes place in the subway. I forgot to mention that his cop friend also gets mysteriously murdered earlier and also becomes alive and starts talking to him telling him that he wasn't really dead just injured and of course he ends up fighting him because a knife is suddenly pulled. He kicks his friend hard and knocks him down and his friend morphs into two twins and he has to fight them. Finally the demon shows itself as it runs out of tricks. It looks like a reptile in human form standing on two feet with a grayish yellow rotten decayed surface skin texture to it. It lifts a heavy steel beam and throws it at the cop. The cop and this demon carnation begin a physical fight to the death.Suspenseful and scary all they way through. It's an original idea. I haven't to this day seen anything like it. Some parts may seem corny when reading the description but not at all when watching the film because it's done really well. Please let me know if you have a copy know where I could get a copy of this film.

gavcrimson SPOILERS INCLUDED The only known film in which a would be rapist is dragged into the New York subway system by a Chinese monster who has inadvertently contributed to a race war in the big apple- 'Gang Wars: Devil's Express' was distributed stateside by Howard Mahler Films a small time outfit known for euro pick-ups like Killer Snakes and The Hatchet Murders (Deep Red). Rodan (Wilfredo Roldan) the films Ratso Rizzo is a slimy, hate filled Times Square con-man primarily responsible for instigating violence between street gangs The Black Spades and The Red Dragons (hence gang wars). His friend/kung-fu master See-Fu 'Luke' Curtis (Warhawk Tanzania) recommends 'a week of improvement for the body and soul' in a Hong Kong kung-fu school if only to keep this drug dealing hothead out of trouble. However in Hong Kong (looking suspiciously like 'Hong Kong'- central park) Rodan accidently releases an ancient Chinese monster who had been imprisoned there in 200bc by a bunch of Buddhist monks. The monster follows the duo back on a one-way ticket to New York, murdering and taking over the body of a Chinese businessman before hiding away on a boat. In an implausible but highly amusing twist the zombie chinaman that emerges from the boat is somehow unnoticed on the streets of New York despite having ping-pong ball eyes. The hustle and bustle of NYC proves too much for this zombie monster who hides in the subway- where for the rest of the movie it lures people to their deaths- enjoying such pastimes as pulling a night-watchman's head off. One of many snuffed out is David Durston (director of I Drink Your Blood and many hard-X 'all male cast' movies) who ends up on the tracks after the monster puts on a woman's voice 'please help me! its dark in here!' Rodan's luck runs out too as he and a friend are ambushed by the 'tong' who beat the friend to a bloody pulp and chase Rodan onto the subway tracks where the monster finishes him off -frying his head in a fuse-box. A broken, angry man See-fu takes on the Red Dragons before learning the dreaded truth 'in my mind what you are telling me sounds fantastic, but in my heart i know your telling the truth'. Dressed in an all-in-one gold suit that if nothing else will cause the monster to laugh itself to death, See-Fu heads into the 135th street subway to fight the monster- who disguises itself as members of the cast (and a train) before revealing its trueself as well as the most phoniest monster suit outside of a Larry Buchanan movie. As its multiple titles attest Gang Wars: Devil's Express is revolving parts horror, intercity action and 'blaxploitation' film. Such eclecticism (the work of five writers!) guarantees that Gang Wars never lacks incident whether its several kung- fu fights wherein kicks and punches miss there mark by a mile or the monster spilling its guts on the traintracks. Ultimately though such opportunistic cross marketing only emphasizes the extreme poverty of its skidrow filmmakers- its hard to convey how amateur hour Gang Wars actually is. Technically its a rock bottom catalogue of horrors- bad editing, scenes shot without sound and a dreadful soul song `That's why you and I believe (in each other)' that appears to have been recorded with the microphone in a bucket of water. Such hopelessness should never have the right to be as entertaining as it is here- but against the odds Gang Wars remains just that from beginning to end. Ironically one of the film's most distinctive features also stems from its zero budget roots, albeit almost accidentally. Too cheap for studios, Writer/Director Barry Rosen lets the action play out in some of the most run down, urban places imaginable embossing the film with a genuine sense of street realism somewhat lacking in meddling Chinese monsters and hack dialogue like 'they'd rather fight a gorilla in a phonebooth than mess with us'. The film's star Warhawk Tanzania with his big Afro and disco-era threads at least looks the part of a poor mans Xeroxed blaxploitation hero- but that's about it. As a character See-Fu is sketched out as streetwise, self assertive and righteous but after Warhawk's ham fisted approach to dialogue hes reduced to an arrogant old complainer 'the next time, the next time you try to recruit me into that pigpen of yours is the time i ice you'. Warhawk also secured acting roles for several of his relatives in the production- witness Tamu Tanzania and 'special guest star' Tsikagi- Iron Priest- Tanzania (!) but true scene stealers here are the nasty old baglady who abuses and spits at passengers on the express before discovering a headless torso and Brother Theodore's street preacher 'Moses is dead, Mohammed is dead, Buddha is dead and I'm not feeling so hot myself'. Barry Rosen had one more exploitation film in his system, a softcore sex film called The Yum Yum Girls starring sometime Charlie's Angel Tanya Roberts before resurfacing as a successful television producer- Warhawk Tanzania (and relations) have never been heard from again.